Wednesday, May 04, 2005

News Flash: Regular Radio Listeners Don’t Like Commercials

A new study out from Arbitron (an international media and marketing research firm) and Edison Media Research states that 47% of listeners would listen to “A lot more” radio if there were fewer commercials on-air. The study also reveals that 80% of Americans think that the presence of commercials is a fair price to pay for free radio. In a press release, Bill Rose, senior vice president, of Marketing for U.S. Media Services with Arbitron stated that, “"The overwhelming majority of radio listeners continue to value the time- honored trade of free radio programming in return for listening to commercial messages. This study reveals that consumers are beginning to notice stations with few spot breaks."

The study continued to show that the majority of listeners (69% at work and 49% at home) do not turn the channel immediately when an advert comes on. Only one third of listeners in cars said that they turn the channel when an ad comes on. Interestingly, the study also looked at quantity versus quality, and found that younger listeners were more annoyed by the quantity of commercials while older listeners were also more likely to factor in the “annoyance factor” of just plain stupid advertising.

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